An Analysis of Service Trade Regulations in Korea, China, and Japan and its Policy Implications

Over the past 40 years, the share of world services trade in world total services has significantly increased. The technological developments in the ICT and transportation sectors, along with movements toward trade liberalization have contributed to this increase. The share of services trade in total trade for Korea, China and Japan has increased as well. However, the services trade’s share of GDP still remains low compared to that in developed countries.

Meanwhile, the growing trend of servitization across the world resulted in the services sector gaining recognition as the new growth engine in Korea, China and Japan. In this regard, all three countries are actively promoting policies to upgrade the competitiveness of their services sector, and services trade liberalization is one of the many policy options they can consider.

In this report, we analyze the regulatory factors which restrict the trade in services of Korea, China and Japan to derive implications for Korea to enhance competitiveness in its services sectors by promoting trade in services in the three countries.